It is week 19 of my Endangered Species made from balloons, I am a little bit late for this one as I have had a hectic few days but here is this weeks sculpture, it is a Seahorse. I love seahorses, in fact doesn't everyone? they are such lovely little creatures.

Did you know there are 54 different types of seahorse and they can be found all around the world, here in the UK we have 2 species of Seahorse that live all along the south and west coast all the way up to the Shetland islands. Seahorses generally live amongst sea grasses and seaweeds, they have a prehensile tail and use it to grip onto the grasses and weeds.

It is fairly well known that the seahorse is the only animal in the world where the male carries the eggs before birth, the female will transfer the eggs into the males egg pouch where they will stay until hatching time, usually about 3 weeks.

Seahorses have many predators in the wild, crabs, fish and rays being the most common, one of the main problems however is of course the worst predator of them all, Humans. The Traditional Chinese Medicine Trade is the main culprit, it takes in excess of up to 150 million seahorses a year from the wild and these are used for all types of medicines.

Other problems include the Curio Trade, taking one million seahorses from the wild and the Pet Trade taking another estimated one million seahorses from the wild, Finally as usual, habitat loss is another massive problem for these delicate little animals.

One of the main reasons I am doing this project is to raise awareness for many of the threatened animals on our delicate planet, one way you can help is to share this and any of my posts on social media. You can also donate to my just giving page. It is a safe secure method of donating money to the WWF and ALL of the money goes directly to the charity - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/EndangeredSpecies